The factor structure of Lithuanian personality-descriptive adjectives of the highest frequency of use.

Abstract

We developed the Lithuanian taxonomy of personality traits according to the psycho-lexical approach. This was done in two studies. First, trait descriptive terms were selected from a Lithuanian dictionary. This selection led to a list of 435 personality-relevant adjectives was thus collected. This list was reduced to the more useful terms and ultimately led to the 194 most frequently used trait adjectives. Second, self-ratings from 212 participants were collected on both those 194 terms and on the 44-item BFI. Principal Components Analysis followed by Varimax rotation was applied on the collected ratings, and also on the ratings after ipsatization. For both these types of analysis structures with two up to seven factors were discussed. Each of the structures was also related to the five BFI-scales. The slightly clearer structure was found in the ipsatized ratings, in which clear support was found for the two-factor model (with Dynamism and Social Propriety), for the three-factor model (Dynamism, Affiliation and Order). A five-factor solution was fully presented with the Big Five factors Extraversion, Agreeableness and Conscientiousness and with a factor that had Intellect traits on the one pole and Neurotic traits on the other, and finally a factor called Toughness.